Edinburgh

    A few weekends ago I hit up Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. The train only takes about 2 and a half hours from Lancaster and is relatively cheap. From how much I liked the city trips in the future might have to happen. Edinburgh feels more like a large town than a city, and retains more medieval charm than Prague. I arrived in the rain on Friday night and went out to the bars with some friends from Gettysburg and Abbe, a high school friend that offered to put me up for the weekend. It was a weekend of sleeping on the floor, but hey moneys tight and it was worth it to meet up with someone from home. I tried some of the famous Scottish whiskey and while I didn't experience the "citrus and vanilla undertones" described to me by the menu, it was actually pretty enjoyable.

Black Mausoleum

    The next day and for the rest of the weekend we had complete sunshine, it was great. We took a free tour of the city and got to see all the major sights. The main route in Edinburgh is called the Royal Mile, and its literally the mile between the castle (at the top of the hill) and royal palace, Holyrood House. The House is where the Queen stays when she is in Edinburgh. The tour took us everywhere, and interestingly enough into a graveyard. The Scots don't look at graveyards with the same stigma we do, and they are actually a popular place to picnic. This despite the fact that in the corner of the graveyard is most haunted place in Europe, the Black Mausoleum. This is the burial place of the man who basically butchered Scotland's Protestant population (Covenanters) and most of the hauntings were reported recently, as in they started in the 90's. This story sold us on taking the Haunted Edinburgh tour later that night, but more on that later. The tour took us through the graveyard and pointed out some of the interesting graves, including one of a man called McGonagall. Turns out J.K Rowling would frequent the graveyard and borrow the occasional name for the Harry Potter books, including Tom Riddle. We also saw the window at which she sat to write the books, the inspiration for Hogwarts and the cafe she wrote at.
      That night was the ghost tour of the city. It was perfect with a full moon and not a cloud in the sky. Of course we went to a graveyard but a different one, and we also hit up an entirely different side of the city than in the tour during the day. One of the places we went to was Calton hill, the site of various witch burnings and also an old Celtic site where faeries and demons could enter this world, it might have been cheesy but it was the perfect night for ghost stories anyway, plus the tour included a free pint at the end so, why not.

      The next day we toured the castle. It's more of a complex of buildings rather than one major central stronghold. It offered some of the best views of the city and a lot of history. We saw places where prisoners of war were kept, including American revolutionaries in the 1700's. Some of the doors had graffiti in the form of carved, early American flags. It was pretty cool. After that I hiked up Arthur's Chair, a mountain right on the edge of town that is in Holyrood Park. The hike was easy and you could see the sea as well as the entire city. It was a great walk and on the way down I stumbled upon the ruins of a 15th century chapel. It was a great cap to the trip.
      That night was my last in Edinburgh and Abbe and I went to a local pub to try haggis. Haggis is one the national dishes of Scotland and its basically crushed up sheep heart and lung, thats been boiled inside a sheep's stomach and then some herbs are thrown in. That aside, it was delicious. The pub had huge cushioned chairs and sitting there on a cold night was perfect. I would gladly go to Edinburgh again.